The Technical Page provides information about music production techniques. Items used in production include: Sibelius, Roland JV 1010, Tascam 428, Sonar, Sound Forge, Easy CD, and Paint Shop Pro

In this section you will probably learn more than you want to know about how the music found on my web page was made.

[NOTE: Some references on this page mention selections found on my CD, Abide With Me. The CD and a related book The Story Behind the Music, are available through the author.]

The recording studio is in the basement of my home in Hilliard, Ohio. For a number of years I have been creating instructional materials (books, video tapes, and CD’s) to teach people how to use CAD (Computer Aided Design) software. In the process, I have collected a variety of computer, video, and audio hardware and software.

The first step in my recording is to get the music into a computer for playback. The music is entered into the computer with a program called Sibelius. This program falls into the category called scoring software. Sibelius is from England and is fairly expensive professional strength software. It provides nearly every feature that a serious musician or composer could want.

Notes can be entered either by using the mouse, keys on the computer, or from an external MIDI keyboard.

[I did not have to enter the notes for every selection. There are web pages on the Internet that have MIDI files that can be downloaded and opened in Sibelius. As a matter of fact there are several complete hymnals available in this manner.]

MIDI (Music Industry Digital Interface) is a standard that allows various electronic instruments and computers to be connected. It is actually possible to connect a piano-like electronic keyboard to a computer, and with software like Sibelius, play a tune on a keyboard, have the computer record the notes, and then print a sheet music copy of what you just played. Well, of course to do that you have to have keyboard playing skills that I am sorry to admit I do not posses.

I have never taken any piano or other music lessons. Fortunately, my sister Gloria did. From her earliest lessons she had a wonderful cardboard representation of notes that you could stick behind the keys on a piano. When I was a kid, I messed around with this enough to learn how to read a bit of music. So, although I don’t have any formal musical training, I can copy notes from a page of music into the computer using programs like Sibelius.

Back to creating music. Sibelius can associate each music staff with a different instrument. After the notes are entered and the tempo is set, the instruments are defined and the volume is adjusted to balance the various instruments. When the Play button is pushed in Sibelius, information is sent to either the internal sound card of the computer, or down a wire connected to a MIDI device. In my case, I am using a synthesizer module called the Roland JV 1010. This little box can make hundreds of different sounds. Many of the sounds are digital representations of actual instruments.

The JV 1010 has standard audio outputs. The next problem is to record the sounds from the JV 1010 mixed with my voice. For this, an audio mixing device called the Tascam 428 was used.

Once the music and voice are mixed together, they have to be recorded in a way that allows them to be put on a CD. I use a second computer that is running a program called Sonar. The audio outputs from the 428 are connected to the second computer. Sonar can record on several different tracks, so tracks were set for the music and voice parts.

Next, the trick is to start Sonar recording, start Sibelius playing, listen to the JV 1010 through headphones, and then sing along without bumping the microphone stand, mispronouncing a word, hitting a wrong note, or otherwise embarrassing myself for the next several minutes of singing. Otherwise, just do the thing over again... and again.

[Since Sonar can record on one track, while playing others, it is possible to build up the tracks, one at a time. This is the trick that was used to create The Woodhaven Men’s Chorus. In the selection Day is Dying in the West, 16 different recording tracks were superimposed using this technique.]

After recording the voice and music combination with Sonar, there is still stuff to do. Sonar includes a mixing board option where the relative volume of the different tracks can be balanced. It also allows for special effects, such as reverb, to be added. This helps make the recording sound a little more like it might have been made in a Domkyrka instead of a small room.

When everything sounds pretty good, a WAV format file is saved from Sonar. The WAV file format is a fairly standard computer file that can be played on computers even if they do not have any special MIDI equipment connected. It can also be recorded on a CD. [NOTE: for smaller files that are faster to transmit over the Internet, selections were converted to the .au format using Sound Forge.]

Well, we’re getting closer now. There is one more computer program to apply before the step of making the CD. I use a sound editing program called Sound Forge. Here I try to normalize the volume so that all the selections on a CD are similar. I can also cleanup any foot shuffling or heavy breathing, or other background noise right before or after the music.

Finally, another program, on yet a third computer, is used to create (or burn) a CD. I use a program called Easy CD. This is where the files for the CD are selected and organized.

What remains is to create graphics for the CD label and jewel case. For this job I use a combination of Paint Shop Pro to create or modify graphics, and CD Label Creator to create CD labels. I have also used a program called Frame Maker, desktop publishing software, to create CD covers and the Story Behind the Music and my other technical books.